25 Almost Great Escapes
by Lucillia
Summary: Jango would be spinning in his grave if he knew that Boba left his little sister to be raised by the Jedi. But the fact remains, that Lena's at the Temple, and would like nothing more than to get out. Sequel to Little Sister.
1. Prologue: The Reluctant Trainee

After the battle of Geonosis, Anakin Skywalker handed a small and rather traumatized little girl to his master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kenobi, realizing that the child had most likely been orphaned during the battle and didn't have a place to go, decided to take the girl back to the Jedi temple with him. The Jedi could determine her fate later, until then he would make sure that she was well fed and cared for.

After a (in the opinion of the Jedi) long overdue midichlorian count revealed that the child (once trained) could become a very powerful Jedi. The council, after much debate, chose to keep her; having decided that her being four years old, while normally too old to accept for training, wouldn't be a detriment in her case.

Content with their decision on the fate of the four year old Lena Fett, the Jedi placed the child with the other younglings in her age group. While the girl currently seemed unhappy with her fate (lashing out at all who came near while screaming that she didn't want to be a Jedi) they believed that the child would soon warm up to and even like the idea once she got used to it.

Lena on the other hand, had decided to escape.

--&--

Author's Note: This is a story of Lena's years at the Jedi temple. Some chapters have been edited and/or rewritten on 10-6-08


	2. Field Trip to a Kindergarten

About a week after Lena arrived, a tour group of kindergarteners visited the Temple on their first field trip. Lena quickly ambushed a small girl who had been lagging behind the rest of the group. She knew exactly what to do. 

"Wanna wear some real Jedi clothes?" Lena said to her new "friend".

"Yes, can I?" The young girl said shyly.

"Sure, how about we trade." Lena said. This was so easy, no wonder Boba was always able to get her into trouble.

"Okay." the girl said as Lena led her to the nearest 'fresher.

Five minutes later Lena joined the tour group while some random kindergartener wandered the halls of the Jedi Temple.

Three hours later two Jedi came to pick Lena up from Sector Three Block Twelve Elementary, and to return a lost student to her frantic mother.


	3. Fishing For Freedom

Lena had found the fishing line when she had visited with Padawan Skywalker. He had invited her over because he had seen that she hadn't been adapting to life at the temple very well, and decided to be something of a mentor to her because he felt that he knew what she was going through. When Anakin had left to get some part or other for the droid that they had been working on, Lena decided to explore. It was under the bed of the room on the right that she found the three hundred meter spool of high quality fishing line. She had snatched it and ran, with a vague plan forming in her head.

Less than a week after making her first escape attempt, Lena secured a slightly modified fishing pole to the outside railing that marked the boundary between the Jedi temple and the abyss between it and the next building. She then tied the fishing line around her middle, securely knotting the end and leaped over the edge of the railing, the fishing line trailing behind her.

--&--

Obi-Wan Kenobi was wandering along the walkway that circled the perimeter of the temple grounds, contemplating the actions of his wayward padawan when he saw the youngling leap off the railing that separated the temple from a chasm that was several kilometers deep and at least a kilometer wide. His heart stopped at the sight. Before his brain could fully register anything, he was leaping for a fishing pole that was teetering over the edge of the railing. He grabbed the pole a bare instant before it would've been out of his reach forever. He didn't take the time to register his relief before he started reeling in what, based on the weight on the other end, could only have been the suicidal youngling.

_This kid was shaping up to be more trouble than Anakin, and she hadn't been here more than two weeks._ _Who knows what she'd be like when she was Anakin's age..._he thought. _If she even lives that long._ He silently added.

Lena crossed her arms and kicked the air when she realized that she was going up instead of down. Another one of her escape attempts had been ruined.

--&--

Author's Note: If you would like to suggest a method of escape, I would gladly type it up for you.


	4. Ventilation System Misadventure

It had been a month since the last escape attempt, and her good behavior appeared to be paying off. Believing that she was finally settling in, Lena's minders no longer watched her every second of the day. Having realized this, Lena saw her opportunity, and took it.

The Jedi Temple's ventilation system went everywhere in the building, and for some inexplicable reason even had a vent that was outside. Upon noticing the outside vent several days earlier, Lena came up with a rather simple plan. Realizing that there was no time like the present, Lena pried the nearest access vent open and crawled into the building's vast and labyrinthine ventilation system.

After the first few hours of wandering, Lena was lost, tired, hungry, nowhere near finding the exit she sought, but convinced that she would find it soon. As time passed, Lena became less sure of finding her way outside, and began seeking an exit, any exit, but the grilles over the vents wouldn't budge from the other side.

After a day and a half of wandering, a dehydrated and exhausted Lena fell two stories and broke her arm. After two days, she curled up into a ball and fell asleep completely exhausted and unable to go any further.

Over the two days that Lena was missing, the minder in charge of the younglings under the age of five went spare looking for her. She would sense Lena's presence in a room, but when she searched the room the child was nowhere to be found. She never once thought to check the ventilation shafts, nor did she associate the scurrying noises that had been annoying the other Jedi and had prompted them to call Animal Control with the missing child.

After two and a half days in the vast maze that was the temple's ventilation system, Lena was fished out by a very surprised Animal Control officer who, to nobody's amusement, happily informed the council that the temple had a Jedi infestation.

--

Author's Note: This was for Star Wars Nut, thanks for the suggestion. Modified on 10-6-08


	5. Out With the Laundry or Ordo's Kama

Lena spent almost a week with the healers recovering from her ventilation system ordeal, and for the next month afterward she was closely supervised around the clock. She sensed that her opportunity had come when her care and supervision had been relegated to a young padawan who didn't particularly enjoy youngling duty. 

Lena had noticed that a droid carted large amounts of clothes out of the temple every week. If she went with the laundry to where it was going, then she'd leave there and be free. Today was the day that the droid came for the clothes.

Slipping past her uninterested caretaker who was more concerned about his studies, Lena crept along the halls to the large bins that housed the clothing that would shortly be taken by the droid. Lena climbed into the nearest one. Just her luck, it had to be underwear. Dirty, stinky, foul underwear. There was no way in hell she was going to bury herself in that. Lena swiftly escaped from the bin and climbed into the next one (sweaty gym clothes) and before long she found that she was finally moving.

The droid, unknowing of its passenger carted the bins onto a transport marked Deelar's Laundry Service, got into the driver's seat and flew away.

Upon reaching the laundry facility, Lena got out of the bin she was hiding in and climbed into a bin full of neatly folded red clothes. Shortly after entering the bin it began to move. The delivery droid, unknowing of its little stowaway put the clean laundry into another transport and delivered it to the GAR base it had come from.

Captain Ordo ran toward the clean laundry, he was going to get his kama back before anyone touched it. He'd already beaten the osik out of the trooper who had spilled armor polish on it, and he wasn't going to let anyone near enough to dirty it again. Upon reaching the bins he noticed something, namely an odd smell kinda like a combination of dirty underwear and overripe gym socks. _Did they even wash the clothes before returning them?_

Ordo walked over to the bin the smell was emanating from and opened the lid. What he found inside was a lot of neatly folded laundry and a child. He looked again, the child was still there. He then noticed what she was sitting on. There was a dirty, foul smelling child sitting on his freshly laundered kama! Ordo nearly cried for the first time in years.

Ordo analyzed the child closely, trying to determine where she came from. She looked exactly like the child that Jango had adopted a few years earlier, but she was wearing clothes that identified her as a youngling from the Jedi Temple. He'd leave her with Kal'buir while he contacted General Zey about the youngling and requested orders concerning her.

Sergeant Kal Skirata looked at the small foul smelling bundle that had been dropped into his arms by Ordo. He recognized her immediately. It was Lena. Jango had often joked about his special little girl, and it seemed that the Jedi order had noticed and somehow taken her. Kal wanted to keep her and raise her in the proper Mando fashion but he knew that if he tried, his boys would be taken from him. Kal couldn't raise her as he should, but he could give her a much needed bath.

A rather clean Lena was returned to the temple a couple hours later, her pockets crammed with sweets and a few new words added to her vocabulary.

Ordo once again sent his much abused kama out to be cleaned praying that this time it would return to him in pristine condition.

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Author's Note: This one is for Ember Koramin I hope you like it. For those who were wondering, a kama is a thing that looks like a skirt. Ordo and Kal Skirata are from the Star Wars Republic Commando books by Karen Traviss.


	6. Interlude: Boba Reminices

Boba sat aboard his father's ship. In the little more than three months since his father's death, the pain of his passing had eased somewhat. The pain that had gone was replaced with something else. Boredom. Utter, empty, and mind numbing boredom. 

Boba tried to do things to get rid of the boredom, but in the confined space of the Slave there was little to do. He found his mind wandering towards the past. He briefly smiled as he recalled the time Lena had snuck into Kal Skirata's quarters and swiped an entire uj cake out from under Ordo's nose, and how Ordo had yelled several obscenities at her when he found out, as the cake was supposed to be for his dessert that night. He chuckled at the time when she was two when she went around with father's underwear on her head and screamed if anyone tried to take them off, and father at a loss saying "At least they're clean". He laughed at the time she threw an entire bowl of blue milk pudding at Taun We, one handful at a time. And how Taun We would get another handful thrown at her as soon as she had wiped the last one off.

For the first time Boba wished that his sister was there. At least with her around there was always something going on.


	7. Stuck in a Speeder

Lena Fett was watched closely for a while but after a few days the constant supervision slacked off. In a war, there just weren't enough Jedi to spare to have her watched. In the more than two and a half months since she had arrived Lena had noticed something. Every time Padawan Skywalker returned from a mission he promptly procured a speeder and left the temple. Skywalker was due back that afternoon.

The moment Skywalker arrived, Lena slipped her watch, and raced over to the speeder bay. Somehow she knew exactly which speeder Skywalker was going to pick. She raced over to the speeder and wedged herself behind the seat the instant before Skywalker entered the speeder bay.

Anakin Skywalker flew away from the Jedi temple with thoughts of his beloved Padme drifting through his head, not sensing the small presence behind him. Upon reaching the landing pad outside his wife's apartment, Anakin hopped from the speeder and raced inside, his distraction understandably blinding him to the presence of his hidden passenger.

Lena tried to crawl out from behind the seat. She was stuck. She tried again. Still stuck. Lena sniffled and clenched her fists, she was not going to cry. She would be brave like Boba was. He didn't cry like a little girl when he got stuck on top of that ledge, and she wouldn't cry now.

Lena tried unsuccessfully to free herself several times. Her movements caught the attention of one of Senator Amidala's security guards who happened to glance out the window and see movement. Cautiously making his way toward the speeder, the guard watched for any other possible signs of danger. There were none. The guard looked inside the speeder. He saw Lena wedged behind the seat. The guard raced back inside to call emergency services to free her.

Several hours later, Lena was carted away from a small media circus by a rather embarrassed Anakin Skywalker who had been blasted by several reporters for not checking the speeder for "playing children" before he took off.


	8. On The Way To Ord Mandell

Author's note: Sorry for the long time between updates. This one is for Lady Tragic. It's not Anakin and Obi-wan but it is a Jedi.

--

Lena, the Jedi temple's smartest and most resourceful four year old, had yet again decided to escape. Due to the war, the temple couldn't afford to keep someone watching the child 24/7 and Lena found her opportunity less than one week after her last unfortunate attempt.

Sneaking onto the speeder Padawan Jusik was going to be using to leave the temple to head for the ship that would take himself and Master Zey to Ord Mandell, Lena took care to not get herself wedged behind the seat...

--

They were half way to Ord Mandell when Padawan Bardan Jusik heard the noise in the galley. He had half thought he was dreaming, since moments earlier he had dozed off over the datapad he was supposed to be studying. When he heard it again, he realized that he wasn't.

Lightsaber in hand, Jusik slowly made his way to the galley. Keeping to one side of the door, he hit the controls that opened it. When no blaster bolts came out to meet him he poked his head in to look inside...

There was a very familiar four year old attempting to work the food processor.

"Master Zey!" Jusik yelled "We have a problem."

--

The Clone Trooper assigned to supervise the Jedi youngling during the trip from Ord Mandell to Coruscant was strangely reminded of the Nulls as he watched her. He just couldn't put his finger on why.


	9. A Tour of the Senate and Ordo's Discover

Lena couldn't believe her luck. It was less than a week since her last escape attempt, and she had found yet another opportunity. The front door to the temple was sitting open, and nobody was watching her. She carefully made sure that she didn't look like she was doing anything sneaky since that would call attention on her faster than a line of naked Sith lords appearing out of nowhere and doing the Can Can.

Still not quite believing her luck, Lena stepped out the door and walked over to the temple's public transit stop. It seemed that all of the gods were smiling on her, one of the hourly transports was arriving at the stop a full five minutes early. Lena boarded it pretending to be with the tourist who had come to take holos of the temple. Children under 5 being free, she didn't have to worry about paying.

--

As the public transport made it's rounds on its route that looped between the Senate and the Jedi temple, a clone named Ordo was reviewing the information his brother Prudii had sent him. Normally he wouldn't focus on such a nonissue, but the comment that trooper had made about Jango's daughter had struck him in an odd manner. It seemed that the aihwa bait that had messed up with him and the other Nulls had done some tampering with one of their custom orders. The child named Lena was too smart for a four year old, and now he knew why. In some ways she was like him and his Null brothers. Ordo briefly wondered if he would have been half as well adjusted as she was if Kal'buir had been there for him since he was a baby.

--

Lena wandered around the Senate offices. As she made her way through the building she swiftly discovered that some senators kept candy in their reception rooms. As she was chased out of the third reception room for emptying yet another candy dish, she ran into a tall man with dark hair and eyes.

The man looked down at her and smiled.

"Thanks." He said when she pulled some candy out of her bulging pockets and offered it to him.

Moments later, the Jedi who had been in search of the wayward youngling caught up to them.

"Thank you so much for finding her Senator Organa." the matronly looking Jedi said as she grabbed Lena's hand and led her away.

"You're welcome." The senator said smiling at the small youngling that was being led off.

--

Author's Note: Here's the direct approach for Ember Koramin.


	10. Starfighter Stowaway

Author's Note: This one's for SwordMaster Z

--

Two months after her last escape attempt Lena finally figured out how to remove the anklet that had been attached to her leg the instant she got back from the senate building without setting off the alarm. Upon removing the anklet, Lena shot into the temple hanger. After carefully dodging Jedi and maintenance droids, Lena found Padawan Skywalker's starfighter awaiting his arrival. She popped the canopy, pushed the seatback forward and wedged herself into the small storage space that was protected by the ship's environmental control system. She then pulled the seat back into place.

Ten minutes after Lena hid aboard the starfighter in a place she wouldn't have been able to fit in if she were any larger, Anakin Skywalker hopped into his starfighter as R2 settled into place for the coming trip. Frowning slightly as he heard the seat click into place, and guessing that the latch for the storage space was loose, Anakin activated the controls.

As Anakin's starfighter rocketed up through the atmosphere to the troop ship waiting in orbit, the storage space Lena was hiding in was becoming hot, and it was getting hard for Lena to breathe. As the fighter docked and settled in the landing bay, Lena's world went black.

Anakin had shut down the ship's controls and jumped out to greet Captain Rex when R2 whistled shrilly in alarm. Racing back to the starfighter, Anakin suddenly sensed what he had ignored once more while being preoccupied with thoughts of his beloved Padme. Lena had once again gotten herself wedged behind his seat. This time the situation was more serious. The child was unconscious, near death, and the ship had already entered hyperspace on its way into battle.

Swiftly opening the storage compartment, Anakin reached in an pulled out the unconscious child. Fortunately, before he needed to do CPR Lena started breathing on her own. Anakin swiftly raced into the medbay with her praying silently that no permanent damage had been done. If anything had happened, it would be his fault for once again not checking behind him.

--

Captain Rex's eyes narrowed as he watched Anakin race from the hangar with a small child in his arms. All of the ARCs had learned to recognize that particular child on sight during training. If any of them allowed her to get so much as a scratch, there was hell to pay. If one of them actually hurt her, even accidentally... the consequences were unthinkable. While the child could be rather annoying at times, all of the ARCs had a great deal of affection for her. She wasn't just Boba's little sister, she was theirs as well.

It looked like he and Cody would have to teach Skywalker a lesson in why you didn't put the little one in any sort of danger whatsoever. Hopefully there wouldn't be too many hard feelings afterward.


	11. Days of Pain

Anakin sighed. The little brat named Lena had tried to sneak off again. Getting the crap kicked out of him by a bunch of clones who were concerned about his negligent treatment of their "little sister" had left him with two broken ribs, a bunch of bruises, and a resolve to make sure she was never out of his sight, much less stuck stuck behind his seat again. Yet, she had managed to escape and he ended up spending two hours searching a battlefield for the wayward youngling instead of fighting, imagining even more horrible fates the child could have come to with every passing second. He eventually found her stomping on the remains of a Super Battle Droid while a clone trooper shot anything that dared come too close.

A quick warning from the Force alerted him to the fact that he had become one of the trooper's targets an instant before the blaster bolt had whizzed past his ear.

"Sorry sir." The trooper said in a tone that clearly wasn't apologetic.

"It's okay, just help me get her back to base camp." Anakin said, once again cursing the Separatist blockade that prevented them from sending the child back to Coruscant.

When he managed to get her back to camp, she was promptly seized and doted upon by Obi-Wan's new Padawan, a Togrutan named Ashoka whom Obi-Wan constantly cursed the Force for sending to him. Captain Rex approached the pair after giving him a look that clearly said "You've failed, again". After giving the child a cursory examination and finding that she had only a few bruises and a couple of scratches he snapped his helmet on with an ominous finality.

_Days of pain, here I come._ Anakin thought as several clone troopers began to circle him.


End file.
